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Varnish Enterprise

Introduction

This is the administrator and developer manual for Varnish Enterprise. It includes (but is not limited to) information on:

  • how to install, configure, and update Varnish Enterprise
  • features available in Varnish Enterprise and its related packages
  • how to tune Varnish Enterprise for better performance
  • how to extend its capabilities through the use of Varnish Modules

The main audience for this manual are systems administrators and managers looking into Varnish Enterprise to solve their caching needs and users that need to reference information on various Varnish Enterprise components.

This documentation is not a replacement for other resources where basic Varnish concepts are explained. For this we refer to The Varnish Book and other introductions to Varnish and VCL.

What is Varnish Enterprise?

Varnish Enterprise is a paid version of Varnish Cache developed by Varnish Software for our customers. Its special features are described on these pages. In addition, customers can access other components in the Varnish Enterprise product and receive support from Varnish Software engineers.

Versioning and release schedule

Varnish Enterprise is versioned after the original Varnish Cache release it is based on, with an additional number indicating the patch level.

For example, the Varnish Enterprise 6.0.9r1 release is based on Varnish Cache 6.0.9 and it is the first release of that version.

Right now Varnish Software is focusing on developing Varnish Cache Plus 6.0.x, which builds on what is currently known as the stable version of Varnish Cache.

Varnish Enterprise 4.1.x was marked End Of Life on 1 August 2022.

Immediate concerns, like security updates, are handled by our support function and will be handled outside of the regular release schedule.

Varnish modules

Varnish Enterprise contains a set of Varnish Modules (VMODs) that extend the functionality of Varnish.

Github link

Examples of modules available:

  • VMODs from the varnish-modules_ package; including cookie handling, header modifications, saintmode, tcp for connection throttling, variable support, request rate throttling, and advanced cache invalidation with softpurge and xkey.

  • HTTP (curl) client interface, memcached client, IP geolocation, hash functions (digest) functionality.

  • Dynamic backend support, runtime ACL creation, fast hash table support with timeouts, calendar and accounting functions for paywalls/metered access. (Varnish Enterprise only)

This list is not meant to be complete, but as a pointer to what is available. Other Varnish Enterprise components may package other VMODs that are documented elsewhere.

Legacy modules:

boltsort (3.0) Fast sorting of request arguments for applications where GET arguments are not ordered by default. Improves cache hit rate.

ipcast (3.0) Match a string against an ACL in VCL. Only needed in Varnish 3.0, builtin functionality in 4.0 and newer.

See Installing Varnish VMODs.

Package repository

All software related to Varnish Enterprise and modules are available in Redhat and Ubuntu package repositories.

These repositories can be accessed on https://packagecloud.io using a customer-specific token. For credentials, contact support.

Further reading

Installation